Kuje market demolished for modernisation-council official

Tukura, who is the chairman of the council’s market development committee, told City News that the exercise, which would be done in stages, would provide the traders a befitting market environment.
He stated that the market was due for renovation as it lacked the basic amenities required of a standard market, adding that the traders were given notice ahead of commencement of the exercise.
Similarly, the special assistant to the council chairman on market development, Chief Odogwuocha Samuel, told our reporter that the modernisation of the market was necessary because Kuje is fast becoming an emerging city.
 “Sometimes in 2013, a section of the market caught fire and there was no access road for the fire fighters to go in and attend to the crises, these are some of the issues we want to address,’’  he stated.
 Odogwuocha noted that the proposed market will consist of an access road, a police station, fire service, banks amongst other amenities.
 But traders, who spoke with our reporter, said that they were surprised when the officials arrived for the demolition exercise.
  A trader, Usman Kashimu, who sells vegetables, said that they were not given enough time.
 However, while stating that the market needed to be modernized, he said that they needed time to arrange their goods and establish make shift shops elsewhere.
 While responding to these complaints, the market manager, Kuje main market, Baba Aduga, said the traders were asked by the council chairman before he signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a company that will develop the market on Public Private Partnership to vacate their shops by the end of January.